Palestinian 'journalist' calls Obama 'Uncle Tom'

Imagine the furore if anyone else had attacked a black president with such a heinous racial slur...

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Merriam Webster describes an 'Uncle Tom' as "a black who is overeager to win the approval of whites (as by obsequious behavior or uncritical acceptance of white values and goals)".

Palestinian 'journalist' Abdel Bari Atwan describes US President Barack Obama as an "Uncle Tom" - an epithet derived from Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. The slightly more controversial version, though hardly more insulting, is "House Negro" - a black person who works in his slave master's house, while the others toil in the field.

"Never in my life have I seen a US President beg for the approval of the Israelis while demeaning himself in the process quite like Barack Obama has done during his current trip... We thought he’d understand the Palestinians’ suffering under Israeli occupation... He has broken our trust and dashed our hopes, reminding us instead of Uncle Tom - the black servant whose subservience to his white master overcame his humanity."

That Abdel Bari Atwan would use such a term to describe Obama's recent call for the Palestinians to recognise Israel, is reflective of two things:

a) That such a phrase went largely unreported, and as a result uncriticised, shows what could only be described as selective outrage and rank hypocrisy from those that would get up in arms about other racially motivated slurs - such as the 'birther' crowd, or indeed awful pictures like this one;

b) That Mr. Bari Atwan has no place as a legitimate and fair-minded journalist, but rather is simply a racist with an axe to grind against Israel and its allies, and that he will stoop to the most disgusting of racial slurs to try to make a point.

Don't forget, this is a man who in 2007 publicly reflected on his wishes that Israel would be the victim of a nuclear strike. He said, "If the Iranian missiles strike Israel, by Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight."

When quizzed on his statements by students at the London School of Economics, Atwan descended into further racial slurs, accusing young, Jewish students of being personally responsible for the bombing of Gaza.

But this is a man who is frequently trotted out as a 'Palestinian voice' by the BBC and other news outlets, as well as appearing on platforms for 'human rights' organisations like Amnesty International.